Car headrests are well known in the art. Since the 1960's, cars have included headrests as standard equipment. One of the more prevalent designs of the car headrest has a padded surface attached to two headrest posts which lock into position. The padded surface is positioned to be at the rear of a head of a user and does not provide any support elsewhere.
Neck pillows are also well known in the art. A common configuration of a neck pillow has a generally ‘U’ shaped pillow placed around a neck to provide a pillow base around a head. This configuration does not have sufficiently structural support outside of the density of the pillow itself. The neck pillow also does not have rigidity in terms of positioning. This means that the neck pillow will shift and move along with the user causing it to not be positioned in a way most optimal for resting or sleeping.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,443 to Nordskog discloses a headrest inflated with air or liquid, or filled with foamed plastic material for attachment to the backrest of a chair, sofa, etc. The headrest may also provide improved privacy through incorporation of a privacy roof and eye shield. When not in use the headrest may be removed from the backrest for storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,477 to Lacy discloses a head support attachable to a vehicle seat for providing both frontal and lateral support of the head. However, attachment of the head support is dependent on a jacket or slipcover being placed over the vehicle seat and secured with a hook-and-loop-type fastener.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,523 to Wang discloses a safety nap cushion for use with a chair back consisting of a reverse U-shaped inflatable back cushion, two inflatable side cushions and an adjustable retraining strap suitable for being positioned over the user's face and across the front of the side cushions to prevent lateral movement of the side cushions when under pressure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,789,851 to Smith discloses a child's sleep collar for use with a child safety seat that includes a pair of collar supports and provides lateral and frontal support to the head of a sleeping child restrained in the child safety seat. Each of the individual collar supports includes a coupling end for attachment to the child safety seat.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,938,491 to Montuore discloses a curved shape head rest to provide full head support backing with two concave sides of equal proportion to support the head while turned as well as preventing the neck from tilting at an uncomfortable angle. The headrest attaches to the existing headrest on a seat by adjustable straps.
United States Patent Publication No. 2010/0289315 to Jackson discloses a head and neck support for a passenger in a vehicle including a rod for joining the apparatus to a seat headrest and side rods for supporting cushions. Positioning of the side cushions is restricted to a vertical movement up or down the length of the side rod.
United States Patent Publication No. 2012/0007405 to Kim discloses a car seat headrest comprising a holding bar and a head support portion attached to the holding bar. Installation of the headrest to a car seat requires the complete removal of the existing headrest in order to be able to insert the headrest stays into the openings in the holding bar. Positioning of the headrest pillow requires disassembly of the headrest and additional components to accomplish alternative configurations of the pillows.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide the desired features described herein as well as additional advantages such as providing a user with supplemental head and neck support when desired. The compact design of the supplemental headrest provides for convenient stowage when the headrest is not in use. The key to a compact design is the minimal base and integrated hinge as part of each side cushion. Preferably, the seat headrest is used in conjunction with an already existing seat headrest. Another object of the present invention is to provide a seat headrest that is easily assembled and disassembled for ease of transport and compatibility with all types of seats with existing headrests.
It is an object of this invention to provide a system and method to provide head and neck support supplementing currently existing seat headrests.